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The interim report of the Bondi royal commission has been released, and what an interesting read it is. Not just for the fact that it predictably panders to government’s instinct to weaponise tragedy to increase its own power, but for the implications of many of its recommendations.
For instance, why do Jewish events specifically need to be protected, if, as the ‘pro-Palestine’ activists insist, they’re not antisemites? Someone’s telling big, fat porkies.
Even worse, the PM needs to be sent to the political equivalent of what we used to call ‘Veggie Maths’ in high school. Bell’s report contains the jaw-dropping recommendation that the PM and ministers responsible for national security undergo anti-terrorism training. Which begs the question: what are they even doing in their jobs, if they don’t already have a grasp on this stuff?
And, of course there’s yet another power-grab that will do nothing but persecute innocent firearms owners while do nine-tenths of bugger-all to foil the next Islamic terror attack.
Antisemitism royal commissioner Virginia Bell has called for a review of the nation’s joint counter-terrorism arrangements, saying capabilities at commonwealth and state levels “could be improved” in light of the December 14 Bondi massacre.
In her interim report, tabled on Thursday morning, Justice Bell urges heightened security at major Jewish events, and for a national firearms register and gun buyback to be prioritised.
Because, as everyone knows, terrorists would never stoop to illegally getting their hands on weapons. Yes, in the Bondi case, the murderous Muslims used legally purchased firearms, but long before that, we know for certain that terrorists have bought weapons on the black market. The Bondi terror attack also raises basic red flags about the usefulness of ‘tougher gun laws’: how was it that a known ISIS cell member was able to legally possess firearms? Why didn’t that so much as raise an eyebrow of police when he and his visa-overstayer father travelled to a notorious terror-training hotspot in the Philippines?
Was it that the watchers are too occupied with busybodying into the lives of innocent firearms owners to bother with the jihadis operating right under their noses?
The interim report also tacitly raises alarming questions about just how seriously the government approaches Islamic terrorism.
Her report recommends the government look at making the role of commonwealth counter-terrorism co-ordinator a full-time position, and that it consider making national security ministers, including the prime minister, take part in a counter-terrorism exercise.
That none of those weren’t already done is a damning indictment of the government’s seriousness.
The report also highlights the government’s essential cowardice and ideological capture by China, as it refuses to back our most important ally in its war against Iran.
It also flags that recent conflict in Iran is “likely to have increased the risk of attack directed at the Australian Jewish community”.
‘Not our war’? Bollocks, it isn’t. We know already that Iran has long exported extremism and sleeper agents to our shores. But our cowardly political class are too content to let America do the hard work of tackling the Ayatollah regime. Not least because they’re too scared of losing the votes of Muslim western Sydney.
The report is also damning for the ‘pro-Palestine’ movement, between the lines.
Among her public recommendations, she says NSW police procedures adopted for Jewish High Holy Days such as Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur be extended to “other high-risk Jewish festivals and events, particularly those that have a public-facing element”.
But, wait, hang on – the ‘pro-Palestine’ lobby keep telling us they’re not antisemites. So, why are Jewish events such high-priority targets?
Not least because Labor governments, in thrall to fanatical Muslims, simply hang out Jewish Australians to dry.
She says potential failures to identify and act on intelligence ahead of the Bondi attack, or in the allocation of police resources to the Chanukah by the Sea event that day, will be addressed in coming hearings.
But she notes NSW police produced no formal risk assessment for the Chanukah event to the royal commission, and that police would often carry out “less formal” assessments when a “comprehensive” written report was not “warranted”.
Her report says Jewish security group CSG on December 8 requested “assistance with any policing measures that the command may deem appropriate”.
“(It) stated that the current security level alert for the NSW Jewish community is ‘high’. A terrorist attack against the NSW Jewish community is likely and there is a high level of antisemitic vilification,” the report reads.
“CSG NSW stated that it was advised in a telephone call on 10 or 11 December, by an officer of NSW police that NSW police ‘could not provide static resources’ for Chanukah by the Sea.”
So, pardon me if I don’t take NSW Premier Chris Minns’ post-Bondi crocodile tears in the least seriously. These two-faced creeps knew Jewish Australian lives were at dire risk, but chose to do nothing, for fear of losing the Muslim vote.
